Question
Last night, I received an e-mail from someone that is on the Yahoo! Auctions staff. I was asked this question: "What do you think the top three problems are with Yahoo! Auctions?"
I guess they have seen my posts in the past and wanted to limit my tendency for an extended diatribe to ONLY three problems!
Anyway, I've already responded with MY answers, but I'd really like for EVERYONE here that's interested to post their opinions on this as well.
I will make a compilation and forward it on!
So:
What do YOU think the top three problems are with Yahoo! Auctions?
Also, if anyone wants to weigh in on this subject but doesn't want to post their views publicly, you can respond to my e-mail at:
kathyandgeorge at gmail.com
I'll see that your opinions are included as well!
George
Join our Yahoo! Group of Yahoo! Auction Sellers! The link is: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/yauctionsellers
Answer
I would say...
1. Commitment: They have never seemed committed to the auction platform. They appear to pay it cursory attention, but it's been a very long time since it has been promoted and supported.
2. Consistency: They were free to list, but listing enhancements and actual sales were at cost. I could live with that just fine, the time and cost made it marginally profitable for me to list there. Then they started charging a listing fee. This was just as they were really gaining some momentum, and it chopped the auctions off at the knees... and the site went bumping down the sidewalk on it's chin. It was no longer profitable time/expense wise for me to list there. As a buyer, I could never find what I wanted anymore. It wasn't profitable for others either. Now it's totally free. OK, well, if I can sell some things, then it would be profitable again... but are they going with the free model for a while to pump up the listings, and then switching to fee based again? Do I really want to invest the time to create a bunch of listings there just to pump Yahoo Auctions back up so they can turn around and make it unusable for me again? I understand the need to change a business plan, but this is the ONLY auction site that's made such sweeping changes, and I don't know what will come next, but something will... and I don't know that I want to spend my time to help bring them to that point. It's not profitable ENOUGH for me to do that.
3. Fraud: A successful site will attract fraud artists. The new fee structure (or lack thereof) will invite everyone who has been thrown off eBay and everyone who is looking to scam a buck into Yahoo Auctions. Yahoo has never made a committment to deal with that on the level that I would consider to be "due diligence". Yahoo has always been very "hands-off" and has relied on flawed and faulty automated systems to handle fraud issues. I can't imagine the new advertising-based model will support a staff to handle these issues any better than they have been handled in the past.
Answer
ToyRanch, I was hoping that you'd post! My reply to them was very similar to yours. Like you, I'm wary of jumping on this train only to have it derailed again. But I just don't see any other alternative, to build competition for eBay, that will make the OAI more palatable for independent sellers. So I'm going to give this another go!
Thanks for your response! Good to "see" you again!
Who knows? A revitalization of FREE Yahoo! Auctions may beget the revitalization of the Yahoo! Posse. Then we could have THAT debate again!
George
Answer
I've listed on Yahoo auctions for over five years, through the various changes, and stuck with it despite the fee structure being very damaging to the site overall. Frankly, I'd be delighted if their model were 5c listing fee regardless of start price, higher FVF like 3%/2% or even more, and the same featuring setup as before. They could do the prior stuff of "Wallet Dollars" rebates based on high feedback and whatevers to reward loyalists plus draw eBayers in for a try. No list fee but FVF's and featuring method would be OK, too. Dunno about this totally-free deal.
Specifics if I have to name 3 and stop:
1) Relevant to nuts&bolts of the present functioning, the new presentation of fewer images to a category listing page, pushing users to do eBay-style items-specific text searches, is very different than before and I fear very damaging to my sales until I push the simple listing volume upwards. Probably necessary for an ad-only revenue model, so I guess I'd prefer a different revenue model, just not the old one as far as listing fees are concerned, with it supporting more visibility of listing thumbnails.
2) And I think difficulties with ALL other issues spin off out of this one:
NO COMMUNICATIONS mechanisms. They need something like the very earliest eBay "Voices" program, but oriented towards managers with thick skins ready to glean useful ideas from rather errr "candid" expressions, at least on some occasions. They need a dozen or so advisors, or more, who have direct email access to Yahoo employees who can make decisions. Not "Pinks" or "Damons" who dissemble and edit and smooth feathers, but people who can say up-front things like "That sort of change would cost too much, here's why, can you think of something that would work as well but not cost as much?" or "There are legal issues with doing that. We open ourselves to lawsuits if we acknowledge anything like that." OK, they *think* they have communications mechanisms with the report-abuse screens and such, but in my experience those are robotic with little sense of interaction with a live person who is actually listening. (I have had a few pleasant exceptions to that on reporting fraudulent... stolen auctions, hijacked ID's... listings when presented with solid documentation, but only what I'd call "response" rather than "communication.") This contact with George is exactly what they need to have more of in effect if they're to deal with a site running 1-2-3 million listings again, free or not, in a way that's visible and accessible to the more alert online communities like here at here, or what they had, if I recall correctly, with Toy back during the MAM days. Maybe they should actually pay some people half-time sorts of wages to do home-work ombudsman functions as such interfaces.
3) And as you guys say, extremely important: Fraud.
There have been way too many *obvious* scammers.... zero-FB, or clear bogus FB... somebody "buys" from them and gets told to wire money to someplace totally different than in the listing, given a fake address, etc... so person wakes up, reports to Yahoo, and the scammer's listings just keep running for weeks more. Does NOBODY there have authority, and time, to blast listings showing that sort of pattern, ruthlessly??
Anyway, you guys know the drill there. I agree, they have to do something, acknowledge the problem more visibly, and start doing more.
Answer
Not to mention that if you go to yahoo's homepage, you have to look for the auctions link. If I didn't already know it was there, I probably wouldn't notice it down near the bottom (third to last line in a very filled site).
Give me a break, that's not promoting the site. If it was in the top menu box, it would be right before autos, since that box is in alphabetical order. That says something to their commitment, IMHO.
Answer
Originally Posted by Jen
Not to mention that if you go to yahoo's homepage, you have to look for the auctions link. If I didn't already know it was there, I probably wouldn't notice it down near the bottom (third to last line in a very filled site).
Give me a break, that's not promoting the site. If it was in the top menu box, it would be right before autos, since that box is in alphabetical order. That says something to their commitment, IMHO.
ditto. that's my main problem with them. way too hard to find.
Answer
I'll chime in too with my support for the suggestion about making the auctions more visible. It's really tough to find them.
I'd love to see some site advertising directing potential buyers to YAHOO auctions. Last time I looked at my account (earlier today), I got an EBAY banner ad!
I had just gotten started with Yahoo back when they screwed up everything, and the slow but steady sales I had enjoyed just didn't make it worthwhile to hang around through the turmoil. Even though I'd dipped my toes in the water on a couple of the FLDs I never had as good results as I had when I first tried. I'm kind of excited about this new opportunity they are providing and hope they would consider making some type of commitment to sellers as mentioned above, considering the huge amount of work involved in transferring listings and sticking around through low sales to get going.
I'm making a partial commitment--I have so far put up 141 listings and intend to get to 500, all decent items, all listings that would under other circumstances be listed in my second ebay store. This process should be complete by June 17 or close to it, and then I will close that Ebay store for the summer and give Yahoo a real chance with those items. So far, with my 141 listings, I haven't had any sales but I would say page hits are comparable to the page hits I get in my Ebay store when I don't run auctions. I'm not sure if all of my items are getting hit since my auction program doesn't provide Yahoo hit counters and it's kind of laborious to check item-by-item so I have only checked on some of my items that got noticeably higher numbers of hits in the Ebay store) I should point out that I didn't really see any steady action in my Ebay stores until I got about 300 items in my inventory, so I'm not discouraged *yet* by the lack of results on Yahoo. And I could maintain enthusiasm for a long, long time if I noticed Yahoo making some effort or commitment to the auctions.
One thing that surprised me about all this, is the realization of the depth of anger I still have about the unconscionable stores FVF increases imposed by Ebay. I was one of those who switched all my listings to a 120-day format to stretch out the lower FVF. Those listings are now expiring and it sticks in my craw to relist them knowing that I will have to pay such a huge increase in fees for no increase in service. NONE of the Ebay stores "improvements" have meant anything to me. I truly did not realize I was still this angry about it! My intention to develop my own web site has pretty much dissipated since I've determined I'm too lazy to make one work, and so I'm thrilled as can be about this Yahoo deal. I don't mind putting in the work to maintain a solid presence on Yahoo, providing I don't get shafted for no good reason.
Answer
I think in order for the Yahoo Auctions to go forward it would definitely need to....
1. Make Auctions more visible on the home page.
2. Revamp and expand categories.
3. Show page hits on the my accounts seller page so that each auction wouldn't have to be checked to see the counts.
Granted there are other issues to resolve but these three need immediate attention.
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I thought free was what created the problems in the first place?
I had always heard that the biggest problem with yahoo was that the free listing meant people could list thousands of 1 cent recipes and made it impossible for buyers to find the gems among the junk.
Answer
I agree about the visibility issue...there needs to be more but overall the issue about COMMITMENT to the auctions venue needs to be there. I sold exclusively on Yahoo Auctions for a long time. I have continued to try to sell there since things started going downhill. Yahoo has a great potential customer base...they need to capitalize on it...if they make the auctions more visable and help to bring in the buyers...the sellers will be there.
I cannot address "safety" issues regarding transactions...I was never scammed on Yahoo, but have been on eBay...and I had fewer NPBs on Yahoo than on eBay. In fact, I have only had ONE NPB on Yahoo.
SageMoon-Cottage